When I finished this book, I didn’t immediately sit up and think what an extraordinary character Jeremiah Gerstler is. But it’s a book that made me think about the sweet, the sad, the comical, the good, the bad, the beautiful things that occur in all of our lives, no matter how ordinary life can feel sometimes. It made me think about how much people are more alike than not. Jeremiah doesn’t always say the right thing. Do any of us? He doesn’t always see a situation for what it really is, at least not immediately. Do any of us ?

These are stories as the title reflects, but the novel in the title is what it felt like to me. It is a series of stories, not in chronological order, that comprise this book depicting specific events in Jeremiah’s life. We get a glimpse of him as a young boy causing trouble in school and at home, to his eighties, as an aged, emeritus professor having to face that he hasn’t always been the best teacher, back to the time in his life when he meets his wife, to the time when he grieves over the loss of his brother in the war, moving forward to his over emotional reaction to his daughter’s wedding fearing the family would lose her, to the touching last story as a widower missing his wife and her baked goods and learning to bake. This not only depicts various stages and events in Jeremiah’s life but it also reflects what is happening around him, a view of the times in our country- WWII, the 60’s, Vietnam, Watergate. You may not love Jeremiah because he’s not perfect, but I came to be very fond of him because no matter what, he always means well and sometimes that’s enough.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Press 53 through NetGalley.